Just to prove that I am not, in fact, blindly following Obama - here is a link to a NY Times article defending John McCain, and it illustrates quite nicely why I voted for him in 2000.
In order to generate the record outlined in that article, McCain repeatedly broke rank - away from the Republican party. He even worked closely with Hillary Clinton for a time.
I think that's just great.
However...he will not be able to do that as president. First (as I said earlier), he will undoubtedly have to select a ludicrously right-wing religious zealot as a running mate just to appease his own party. Not that I have a problem with faith of any sort, but keep your spiritual whatsits out of my public policy.
Second, he will not be able to veer from the Republican agenda in the same way as president. Were he to straddle the moderate centerline, rather than preach conservative ideals, he would be fighting the same lobbyists and special-interest groups all over again, and without Congressional support among Republicans , he would be rendered impotent as a Commander-in-Chief.
This is why I can't support him now. McCain will either be a hard-line conservative, and the current political status quo will be maintained, OR he will be completely ineffective - fighting for good causes that get shut down by his own party.
Oddly enough, this is the same problem I have with Hillary Clinton.
That's my 2 cents.
That is some great analysis. I think you've phrased a lot of the things I've been thinking perfectly, and thought of a bunch of other good stuff I wish I would have thought of.
ReplyDeleteI have a tendency to do that, but usually no one is watching. Dang!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Just to pat your ego a bit more, Sam, I've felt the same way about McCain--all the bits I ever liked about him are the bits he's started suppressing in order to make himself "Republican" enough to be their nominee. The beautiful thing about Obama is that he has those issues in which he strays from the party line, too, but he hasn't been apologetic or flip-flop about it to get the nomination, he's just stood by it--and he gets my respect all the more for it.
ReplyDeleteIt's gonna be honestly difficult for me if the general election comes down to McCain/Clinton.
ReplyDeleteGood God!
I just don't like Hillary -- I want to...I know I'm supposed to...but I just don't.
C'mon, Barack! Slaughter 'em!